Celia's Challenge

A novella.
When rich, reclusive, cat-loving Celia Thorsen is forced by her mother's will to interact directly with the world, her life changes in a big way. As she takes her first reluctant steps, she constantly consults her priest and rails against her situation. She also seeks advice from the redoubtable Long Island social activist, Dorothy Duncan, about how to create the no-kill cat shelter the will demands.
Celia navigates setting up the cat shelter with handsome new employee Noah Spangler, also a pet lover. When she discovers her Manhattan co-op board intends to oust all the pet owners in the building-including her with her two cats-Celia forges a friendship with another co-op resident, attractive Randolph Whitney, who has a large dog. Together, they plan to foil the board.
New work, a new battle to fight, and two new men in her life. Because of a will.
A novella.
Celia's Challenge is a novella sequel to Summer in the City and a prequel to A Daughter's a Daughter.
After Summer in the City: Remember Celia Thorsen, the sulky grown daughter of Senator Thorsen in Summer in the City? Remember how outraged she was that her elderly (he was seventy!) father had taken up with another woman soon after his wife's death? Celia was a sad case: divorced and alone (except for her cats), without a career and living on a trust fund, and angry at her father for wanting to find happiness late in life. She didn't present a pretty picture.
Celia obviously was unhappy. In Summer in the City, as long as she got out of the way of her father's plans and didn't make a public scene, that was enough. But couldn't Celia find a better future for herself? Celia's Challenge is the next chapter in her life story.
Before A Daughter's a Daughter: Remember Dorothy Duncan? She was Pam Ridgeway's difficult mom in A Daughter's a Daughter. Before Dorothy retired from her busy life as an activist, she helped many people. In this novella, Dorothy is still in her prime, mentoring Celia.
Every life story has an arc. Celia's is finally on the ascendant in Celia's Challenge.
Summer in the City
Celia's Challenge
A Daughter's a Daughter

Award-winning author Irene Vartanoff combined her love of romances and comic books by working for Harlequin, Bantam, Berkley, and MyRomanceStory.com as well as Marvel Comics and DC Comics. Irene's novels published to date range from women's fiction to contemporary western romance to chick lit superhero adventure. A lifelong East Coast resident, Irene lives in a forest of tall oaks in the wilds of West Virginia.
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